Why “open water”?
Despite often facing the same challenges, utilities frequently end up independently developing solutions and approaches from scratch to address similar issues. A common example of this is how different utilities independently develop ways to classify and describe their water-related assets, even though these assets perform the same functions worldwide. If utilities adopted a shared “best-practice” approach for defining and categorizing these assets, they could save time and resources and improve efficiency across the board.
“Open water” is about leveraging collective efforts in the water sector, so individual utilities don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” for challenges that are common across the sector. It’s about creating a collaborative, open water-sector where data, tools, and experiences are shared in an open and equitable way for a more water-secure future around the world. The water sector is well positioned for collaborative and collective action for a number of reasons I outline below — it’s just a matter of the industry seizing the opportunity and shifting its philosophy and actions towards open practices for the greater good.
Natural monopoly in water sector — an opportunity for open ways of working
The competitiveness of the water sector can vary greatly depending on the specific area of focus (e.g., water supply, wastewater treatment, water technology development) and the regional or national context. But the water sector has unique characteristics that tend to limit traditional forms of competitiveness, and that makes the industry well-positioned to embrace open practices and collaboration around data, tools, and experiences.
Unique non-competitive characteristics in the water sector
- In many places, water supply and treatment are managed by public utilities, which operate as regulated public monopolies. These are generally not competitive in the way that other industries are because utilities have a guaranteed customer base and are subject to governmental oversight.
- Heavy regulation often sets standards for water quality, pricing, and infrastructure maintenance, which limits the entry of new utility competitors and constrains the competitive behavior of existing utilities.
- Water supply and sanitation are highly sensitive social and political issues. Failures or disruptions can have significant public health and societal implications, so governments often prefer stability over competition in such critical sectors, often with the focus on service provision, regulatory compliance, and public health rather than competition.
- Water resources are not evenly distributed and are often specific to particular geographic areas with water systems often integrated and interdependent, from sourcing to treatment to distribution. This complexity limits the scope for competition in the sector because it can make it challenging for new entrants to compete in just one part of the value chain without disrupting the rest of the system.
- Water infrastructure, like pipelines, treatment plants, and pumping stations, requires substantial investment (initial and ongoing). Businesses looking for short-term gains find this less attractive, reducing competitive pressures in the sector. This also adds to the natural monopoly of public utilities, where it’s economically inefficient for multiple providers to build duplicate infrastructures and feasibly participate in the market.
Private enterprises do compete in the water sector
The water sector does include a variety of private enterprises, such as manufacturers of water treatment technologies, consultancies specializing in water resource management, water management software developers, and private water utilities.
While these entities operate in a competitive environment, vying for contracts, technological leadership, and market share, the highly regulated nature of the water sector can affect pricing, service quality, and investment decisions, greatly shaping market opportunities for private enterprises working within it.
Why the water sector’s natural monopoly is an opportunity for “open water”
Natural monopolies can sometimes become stalled or stagnant given their secure market position alongside regulatory confinements, which can limit the incentive for technological advancement and slow innovation, a source of frustration for many in the water sector.
However, the limits around competition in the water sector present a unique opportunity for openness, collaboration, and working towards a common goal across the industry because the sector is not constrained by guarding competitive advantages.
The sector is well-positioned to shift its focus to collaborating on enhancing service quality, efficiency, technological advancements, and jointly developing solutions that address the complex challenges the sector faces, benefiting everyone from commercial and public water enterprises to end consumers.
What does open water look like, and what are its benefits?
The water sector is complex and multifaceted. Water is a shared resource that crosses borders, both physical and administrative, and effective management often requires interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, and inter-regional cooperation. One company or organization might have expertise in water purification, another in distribution technology, and a third in customer service innovations. In this context, openness in the water sector could be incredibly productive in a number of ways.
Data pooling, generative AI, and data governance
Most utilities use almost the exact same type of assets for the same purposes, which means there’s a unique opportunity for the water sector to leverage open data, data pooling, and generative AI to collaborate on common challenges and accelerate innovation.
Another key challenge for water utilities is to standardize how they identify and categorize their assets, which is essential for transitioning into a digital utility. Currently, due to a lack of universal standards, many utilities have to create their own methods for documenting their assets in digital systems. This process often requires significant time and money. To address this, organizations like BIM4Water and Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA)have worked together to create a guide titled “A Water Industry Guide for the Management of Asset Data using Uniclass,” which was published a year ago. This guide encourages utilities worldwide to adopt Uniclass classification codes and to use Product Data Templates (PDTs) for detailing asset properties. By doing so, utilities lay the groundwork for more efficient data sharing and collaboration with suppliers and other utilities. Adopting these practices is a crucial step towards achieving open and accessible water data.
Data pooling refers to the process of aggregating and consolidating consistent and similar data from various sources (i.e., utilities) for the purpose of creating larger and richer datasets that can provide more comprehensive insights than a single source can. Add generative AI to the mix, and there are some really exciting possibilities. For example, if enough utilities shared similar datasets for key utility processes, data-driven models could then be created and leveraged by utilities across the board for predictive capabilities and optimized water management. Another example could be massive data pooling around certain sensor data in similar situations, which could potentially lead to the development of virtual sensors.
Imagine the powerful predictive maintenance that could come from pooled sensor data from utilities around the world. It could help predict equipment failures and maintenance needs across different utilities. It could help enable quicker responses to leaks, contamination, and unauthorized usage. Resource allocation could become extremely efficient in a breadth of contexts, like energy use, pumping stations, and treatment chemicals.
A large, rich dataset drawn from sources around the world, combined with increasingly advanced generative AI capabilities can give utilities, policymakers, researchers, and innovators new insights into water resources, usage patterns, and infrastructure performance that they could not otherwise get, informing innovative solutions to water-related challenges at different scales.
While the benefits are numerous, there are concerns and hurdles to overcome around data pooling in the water sector. These include data privacy concerns, the standardization of data formats, the integration of disparate data sources, and ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the pooled data for AI models to be trained on.
But there are advanced digital techniques now that can ease these concerns. For example, there are what’s called “federated learning techniques” to train AI models on centralized data while maintaining data privacy without actually moving data from its original location. Generative AI may be able to standardize data formats in a fraction of the time it would take for humans to do it. The key is that successful data pooling initiatives require collaboration, technological investments, regulatory support, and good data governance.
Standardization and interoperability
Standardization and interoperability are important aspects of successful open water initiatives because it makes it easier for the sector to compare data and develop solutions that work on broader scales. The problem is, utilities and other organizations in the water sector tend to work in isolated “islands,” which leads to expensive reinvention of the wheel.
Take, for example, data properties for the lifecycle of the water assets. Across the globe, almost every utility has the exact same assets, like pumps, pipes, valves, etc. But they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars coming up with different naming conventions for asset properties. Not only is this an expensive way to duplicate efforts, it makes it cumbersome for the water sector to share knowledge and technology because everyone’s conventions are different.
With some form of standardization, the sector can develop and learn from best practices, move onto new challenges faster, and accelerate innovation. This is one of the goals of SWAN’s interoperability group. This group will bring together the work that has been accomplished in various organizations around the world to further build on with two key objectives: 1) best practice for asset data properties and classification, 2) digital application interoperability.
Furthermore, modern water systems require interoperability. This can look like integrated platforms that combine monitoring, analytics, distribution, and customer service, to better address challenges at every stage of the water cycle. Open platforms can integrate various elements of water management—supply, sanitation, irrigation, flood control—providing a holistic view and enabling better decision-making.
Tech companies in the water sector can support interoperability across digital solutions with things like software development kits (SDKs), so companies can extend and link their platforms more easily for their customers’ benefit.
Maximized knowledge sharing: open use cases and building bridges
If water organizations across the globe shared their use cases and success stories more openly, it would lead to better benchmarking across the entire global water sector. Better benchmarking can prevent organizations from succumbing to failures and challenges others have already learned from. An open ethos in the water sector can facilitate the sharing of best practices, successful case studies, and effective methodologies, allowing different regions to learn from each other’s successes and failures.
For example, the SWAN Digital Twin Work Group provides a means for global utilities to share use cases on digital twin deployments and provide very powerful lessons learned. The Architecture Subgroup, led by Chengzi Chew and Michael Carl, organized and published a white paper titled “SWAN Digital Twin Readiness Guide,” contributed to by over 80 individual volunteers. This collaborative work in turn has benefited many utilities in their digital twin journey.
Here are some more examples of open use case possibilities:
- Plans for water treatment facilities and technologies could be open, allowing communities to build or adapt them to local needs without reinventing the wheel.
- Free, open educational materials could aid in training the next generation of water professionals or educating the public on water issues.
- Open virtual labs could provide hands-on experience in water management scenarios, useful for both education and policy testing.
There’s an opportunity to build bridges between existing water-sector knowledge hubs from different regions around the world. Organizations like the National Rural Water Association (NRWA), SWAN Forum, American Water Works Association (AWWA), Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA), the International Water Association (IWA), BlueTech Research, and British Water, are just a few of the great organizations that work to bring utilities, technology vendors, and researchers together to come up with ways of sharing and learning from each other. Open water should take into consideration established islands of knowledge in the water sector and work to connect them.
Equity, transparency, and accountability
Water-related issues frequently impact under-resourced communities the most. But as the water sector becomes more open, the efforts of well-resourced utilities to share data and case studies will bring more equity to less-resourced utilities, and that can lead to increased water security globally. Collaboration helps spread solutions, meaning countries and regions benefit from innovations even if they lack the resources to develop such technologies locally. For example, open source solutions are typically less costly than proprietary alternatives, which can be a significant advantage for governments and organizations with limited budgets.
Furthermore, open datasets related to water quality, supply levels, and infrastructure conditions can increase transparency in policy and decision making, thereby promoting accountability and incentivizing better governance and responsible corporate behavior. Open data can give stakeholders the ability to understand and participate in decisions and solutions that affect them, which is another way water organizations, including regulatory bodies, can demonstrate accountability and earn public trust.
Embrace open water for a water-secure future
The water sector is uniquely positioned to benefit from an open water philosophy. This approach promotes collaborative, transparent, and equitable practices that prioritize shared data, tools, and experiences. Open practices can revolutionize the way water utilities, private enterprises, and organizations operate and innovate.
By leveraging open data, pooled resources, case studies, and advanced technologies like generative AI, utilities can work collectively towards more predictive, efficient, and innovative solutions that address global water challenges. Open source solutions will aid in equalizing the disparities between well-resourced and less-resourced communities, ensuring water security on a global scale.
“Open Water” whitepaper
This article was taken from Qatium’s whitepaper “Open Water: why we need open data, open software, & open collaboration in the water sector.” You’ll find the full whitepaper here.
